Russian Internet group WebMediaGroup has attracted $10 million for its video portal Zoomby.ru, an aggregator of broadcast quality video content developed in partnership with a state-owned Russian TV channel.
The round was carried out by the Leader-Innovations – a 3 billion ruble venture fund launched in 2008 with the participation of the state-owned fund of funds RVC, – Gazprombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, and Webmedia’s co-founders, Digit.ru reported last week.
Significantly, both external investors have already been involved with WebMediaGroup: in March 2011 the group sold a 30% stake of its online media products – including Zoomby.ru, e-commerce site Dostavka.ru and a few thematic consumer portals – to the fund and the bank.
Founded in 2010, Zoomby.ru claims to be the biggest Russian TV content aggregator. The largest part of the investment will be used for broadening the content library and establishing Zoomby.ru as a multi-platform service.
“Above all the investment is aimed at achieving economic and business goals,” Zoomby.ru PR manager Olga Lyubimova told Digit.ru, adding that the development of legal video streaming services will also draw the audience away from pirate resources.
As of April 2013 Zoomby.ru’s monthly audience reached 7 million unique visitors watching about a million video pieces per day. The service is also available for Smart TV owners.
Impregnable market
The fast-growing market for online video streaming in Russia is very competitive and attracting ever greater sums from investors. In June 2012, the Russian LSE-listed holding AFK Sistema poured $15 million into Stream.ru, a paid video content portal; a few months later, in September 2012, the prominent video streaming site Ivi.ru attracted a whopping $40 million in a round led by the private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partners. One year earlier, the ad-funded portal Tvigle secured a Series B round of $8 million.
On the other hand, the local online video market remains terra incognita for major international players who have yet to penetrate Russia’s borders. Over the past two years, representatives of two popular video streaming services, Hulu.com and Netflix, were reported to be holding negotiations with Russian online video and movie industry players; but the companies never confirmed this and have not yet tried to enter the market.
